If You Watch One Episode Of ‘Girls’ Ever, Make It “American B***h”

If you’ve never seen Girls, or you dropped out a few seasons ago, or this is the first you’re hearing of the show (where you been, girl?), make it a priority to watch the show’s latest episode, “American Bitch.”

This show is no stranger to being dissected and discussed and thinkpieced to death, and this episode will be no exception — in fact, it might be the most talked about episode in the show’s history. As it should be. Season 6, episode 3 entirely mastered what the HBO comedy does best. It takes two main characters, gives them important dialogue, and leaves us with thoughts and feelings long after the 33 minute runtime is up.

Spoilers ahead!

“American Bitch” finds Hannah (Dunham) visiting the posh home of author Chuck Palmer (played by Matthew Rhys), a fancy author who has been accused of sexual assault by several women on Tumblr (without an e). He wants to share his side of the story, his perspective, his explanation. Hannah spends the episode being skeptical, never full-on agreeing with him, yet slowly starting to see where he’s coming from. She might even feel a little bad for him, and question herself and the reason these women had negative things to say about him. And in that moment, he whips out his penis and places it on her leg. She does what the women before her have done and grabs ahold of it, before realizing what has just taken place and jumps up in disgust.

To add another layer to it all, Palmer’s teen daughter has just arrived to stay with him and Hannah sits through her flute performance, glancing at Palmer’s adoring face throughout. The performance of Rihanna’s “Desperado” flows from flute into the actual song, as we watch Hannah exit the building, only as a parade of well-dressed young women stream into it, symbolizing that Hannah was hardly the last woman that will go through this experience.

So whether you find Dunham to not be your cup of tea or her views on feminism too much, I strongly encourage you to watch this episode, no matter where you are or aren’t in your Girls viewing. It’s important for many reasons; we’ll start small and work our way up.

First, it’s total #apartmentgoals. What a dream living space, and exactly where you’d expect a pompous author like Palmer to reside. And it’s no accident that he keeps his space immaculate, with shoes neatly lined up in the hallway, and decorated with photos of him with Toni Morrison. This living space is a metaphor for his reputation. He’s so incredibly worried about how he comes off to others, and those walls reflect that back at him, at Hannah, at us as viewers.

Next, the acting here is superb. Dunham gives a bold yet relatable performance. She sticks to her guns and gets her point across in a way that is firm without being preachy, arming any woman who watches this show with the feeling that she too can also stand up for herself (and fellow ladies) no matter how insistent or handsome their conversational partner may be. Because then we get to Rhys. Currently killing it on The Americans, this role gave him the opportunity to be in 2017 (and not the ’80s where the FX drama is set) and just about as creepy as he’s ever been. And yet still charming! The urge to discuss how attractive he is in the episode feels weird, like it’s missing the point: except that IS the point. He was the perfect actor to play this type of role: a character that maybe, perhaps, if he is to believed, wasn’t outright forcing himself on anyone, but definitely was using his inherent charm in less than moral ways. You could watch these two go back and forth for an entire season, another strength for Girls. As we saw in season 2, episode 5 “One Man’s Trash” aka “The Patrick Wilson Episode”, this show is at it’s very best when it locks two people, namely Dunham and a handsome actor, in a beautiful home together and just lets them talk it out, keeping the journey much more important than the destination, as they may sometimes never truly reach one. These bottle episodes could be performed on a stage as a play and would be just as compelling and just as beautiful and just as deep.

Ok, so let’s get to the penis thing. OF COURSE this guy whips it out. It’s so much less about his action, and then her subsequent action, and all about our thought journeys. It takes a minute or an hour or a day to process this scene. There’s a lot going on. Even while the two people lay completely still and silently, everything is happening. Girls just gave us something major to process. Not to mention that so many women are having to process similar situations in their own real lives. But seeing this on screen, and having conflicting feelings with each sentence spoken, makes each beat of the episode uniquely important. Hell, having to compartmentalize this guy as a dad (a good dad?) is a lot. We know from his awkwardly long and tense phone call earlier in the episode that his relationship with his daughter’s mother is certainly not a walk in the park, but the love he can have for a female, so innocent and genuine, throws a real wrench into mix, doesn’t it?

Bottom line, this is a stunning episode of television and of art. The suspense and the calmness swirl together, as right and wrong battle it out and all lines are blurred on character, on sexuality, and on what is even happening in any given moment. What does it mean to be a female, a sexual female, and a female writer? With “American Bitch”, Dunham gives a hug to the women who have been through this and who will go through anything remotely similar, letting women know “It will be ok, we’ve all been there, girl — just always listen to your gut,” and letting these types of men know, “We see what you’re doing.”

This is not a show that has or gives you all the answers. As we see here, they excel at giving you the pieces, and let you put together the puzzle that is your complete thought on a specific situation or topic. Girls is always great at starting a conversation, and this is one that everyone needs to have.